House of Commons Education Committee School Partnerships and Cooperation Fourth Report of Session 2013–14 Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Additional written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/educom Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 30 October 2013 HC 269 Published on 6 November 2013 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £17.50 The Education Committee The Education Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Education and its associated public bodies. Membership at time Report agreed: Mr Graham Stuart MP (Conservative, Beverley & Holderness) (Chair) Neil Carmichael MP (Conservative, Stroud) Alex Cunningham MP (Labour, Stockton North) Bill Esterson MP (Labour, Sefton Central) Pat Glass MP (Labour, North West Durham) Charlotte Leslie MP (Conservative, Bristol North West) Siobhain McDonagh MP (Labour, Mitcham and Morden) Ian Mearns MP (Labour, Gateshead) Chris Skidmore MP (Conservative, Kingswood) Mr David Ward MP (Liberal Democrat, Bradford East) Craig Whittaker MP (Conservative, Calder Valley) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/education-committee Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Dr Lynn Gardner (Clerk), Katy Stout (Second Clerk), Martin Smith (Committee Specialist), Ameet Chudasama (Senior Committee Assistant), Caroline McElwee (Committee Assistant), and Sarah Priddy (Committee Support Assistant) Jake Anders was a Committee Specialist on the staff during the inquiry. Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Education Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6181; the Committee’s e-mail address is [email protected] School Partnerships and Cooperation 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 5 Background to the inquiry 5 Our inquiry 5 Evidence base of our inquiry 6 Background information 7 Legal structure underpinning formal partnerships 7 Looser collaboration and school-to-school support 8 2 Potential for school collaboration 10 School collaboration for school improvement 10 Importance of mutual benefit 12 Competition and collaboration 14 Evidence of impact 15 3 Diversity and desirable features 17 Diversity of models 17 Families of schools 19 Geographical coherence 21 4 Incentivising partnerships 23 Ofsted 23 School accountability measures 24 Financial incentives 25 Funding for Teaching Schools 26 Independent State School Partnerships 27 5 Coordinating collaboration 29 The middle tier and the new role of local authorities 29 Strategic oversight 31 Role of advisers 32 6 Academies and collaboration 34 Inspection of academy chains 34 Moving on from partnerships 35 Monitoring converter academies 36 7 Conclusion 38 Formal Minutes 43 Witnesses 44 2 School Partnerships and Cooperation List of printed written evidence 44 List of additional written evidence 45 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 46 School Partnerships and Cooperation 3 Summary School partnerships and cooperation have become an increasingly important part of a self- improving or school-led system. We believe that such collaboration has great potential to continue driving improvement to the English education system. The diversity of structures and models already in place is a strength and proof of vitality. Schools should be able to adopt models of partnership and cooperation that suit their needs within a legislative and policy framework that is as non-prescriptive as possible. School collaboration offers benefits to all schools involved. While there are tensions between competition and collaboration, these are largely creative tensions and collaboration is growing in many forms within a competitive school system. Given the high level of enthusiasm for school collaboration, it is striking that definitive evidence of its impact is lacking. We recommend that the Government embed evaluation into further initiatives relating to school partnerships and collects systematic evidence on what works. The Government has published similar schools data to help schools identify possible partners. Much more needs to be done to provide richer and more easily accessible information and to make this an effective resource for schools. It is regrettable that the data system is not modelled more closely on the families of schools used in the London and City Challenge programmes. There are different possible incentives to encourage school collaboration. We support Sir Michael Wilshaw’s proposal for an excellent leadership award to be given to headteachers who support underperforming schools in disadvantaged communities. We regret that no one has yet devised a workable model of school accountability that incentivises school partnerships and we encourage efforts to generate an appropriate model. We believe that the Government is right to provide funding to help schools meet the costs associated with taking part in collaboration. We recommend that the Government widen this funding beyond academy sponsorship to assist other partnerships, in particular using the Primary Chains Grant to help schools cover the cost of forming federations. We also recommend that the Government re-introduce targeted seedcorn funding for sustainable Independent State School Partnerships. Local authorities have a critical role to play in a school-led improvement system. We welcome this emerging new system and we recommend that the Government set out clearly the role of local authorities in helping to broker school-to-school partnerships and acting as champions of all parents and children in their region. The evidence suggests a need for greater oversight of school partnerships and cooperation, possibly on a regional basis. The Government should set out how organisations in the middle tier will be held to account for strategic oversight of partnership-working in all schools and how they will ensure that gaps are not allowed to develop or remain unfilled, particularly in rural and coastal areas. The DfE and the National College of Teaching and Leadership should identify and designate system leaders, such as National Leaders of 4 School Partnerships and Cooperation Education and Teaching Schools, in areas where they are currently lacking, and increase incentives for existing leaders to work in the areas of greatest need. The DfE should make an assessment of the quality and capacity to provide expertise within a school-led improvement system and ensure that schools are aware of where they can access such advice. There is no doubt that academy chains will play an increasingly important part in a self- improvement system. We recommend that Ofsted is provided with the powers it needs to inspect academy chains. We also recommend that the procedures for schools to leave chains by mutual consent are formalised and published and that the Government explains how an outstanding school would be able to leave a chain when this is against the wishes of the chain management. Convertor academies are expected to support other schools in return for their academy status and yet the evidence to us suggested that this is not happening. We recommend that the DfE urgently reviews its arrangements for monitoring the expectation that convertor academies support other schools. School Partnerships and Cooperation 5 1 Introduction Background to the inquiry 1. In the 2010 Schools White Paper the Government set out its vision of a self-improving education system, stating that: our aim should be to create a school system which is more effectively self-improving. [...] It is also important that we design the system in a way which allows the most effective practice to spread more quickly and the best schools and leaders to take greater responsibility and extend their reach.1 2. Partnership working and cooperation between schools has long been part of the education landscape, whether encouraged by government or not. Nevertheless, in recent years and alongside the changing role of local authorities, school partnerships and cooperation have become an increasingly important part of what has been referred to as a “self-improving” or “school-led” system.2 This has been seen particularly in the successful London Challenge and City Challenge programmes which led to significant improvements in the schools in the areas involved. It has also been a key driver behind the rapid expansion of the academies programme. 3. There seems little doubt among school leaders that collaboration can play an important part in school improvement. Research commissioned by the National College of Teaching and Leadership suggested that 87% of headteachers and 83% of chairs of governors describe partnership with other schools as “critical to improving outcomes for students”.3 The same survey also found that a majority of headteachers (60%) felt the policy environment is supportive of forming collaborative partnerships, although this leaves a large proportion of school leaders who do not endorse that view.4